Ice Skating Question

[GoodRevrnd]

I'm about to be dragged ice skating by the g/f in like 45 min and I have never gone before. Not only that, I've never roller bladed and have barely roller skated (and extremely poorly at that). I do know how to ski.

What kind of skates are easiest to start out in? Hockey or figure? Theoretically I'd love to learn enough stuff to join some amateur hockey league eventually, but realistically I won't stick with anything long enough for that to be a consideration today.

 

[DrPizza]

Doooooooomed! Your ass is doooooooomed to have bruises on it tonight.

Oh, and you want hockey skates. There's not much of a difference for staying upright, but if you did what I did when I was a kid - lose your balance, try to catch your balance, and go down on your knees... Well, when that happens, your heel goes up against your butt. And, there's 2" of metal protruding from the heel of figure skates. Your heel will still make it up to your butt.

 

[chusteczka]

It does not really matter between hockey or figure skates for plain standard skating. What matters is how recently the blades have been sharpened. Ask for the pair with the sharpest blades for your size.

Unsharpened blades that slide sideways are a pet peeve of mine.

<snipped some details I was wrong on>

Also, it helps to wear two pair of socks to help prevent blisters. Make the inner pair a thin nylon fabric, the outer pair a thicker cotton fabric and you will be good. Or you can prepare by pre-installing bandaids on the ball (under your big toe) and the heel of your foot. Or just bring several bandaids with you in your pocket.

Make sure to keep your ankles strong and straight to keep the blades of the skate straight up and down (perpendicular) to the ice.


EDIT: Removed some details that I was wrong about.

 

[ThatsABigOne]

Doooooooomed! Your ass is doooooooomed to have bruises on it tonight.

Oh, and you want hockey skates. There's not much of a difference for staying upright, but if you did what I did when I was a kid - lose your balance, try to catch your balance, and go down on your knees... Well, when that happens, your heel goes up against your butt. And, there's 2" of metal protruding from the heel of figure skates. Your heel will still make it up to your butt.

I do not understand anything that you have said..

Best way to skate is lean a bit forward so you can retain balance. It is sort of like skiing, if you have done that before..

 

[GoodRevrnd]

Sweet, thanks for the help.

 

[chusteczka]

I do not understand anything that you have said..

Best way to skate is lean a bit forward so you can retain balance. It is sort of like skiing, if you have done that before..

LOL, literally ROFL!!! :biggrin:
You are doooooooooooooomed!!!!!!

Leaning forward in figure skates will bring you to a dead stop with a firm faceplant into the ice. LOL

Please let me watch you regain your balance by leaning forward into those notches in the front of the figure skating blades used for spins. I want to see this.

 

[PieIsAwesome]

Hang onto your girlfriend. When you fall, bring her down with you, and remind her that she dragged you to that place.

 

[EagleKeeper]

Wear a jacket and gloves.

I would say get a pillow for your ass, but you will look like an ass and it is to late.

Many rinks will have an accessory for new skaters that are like a wheelchair without the wheels. You push it along the ice in front of you to help with yourbalance. Looks embarrassing, but it can help your ass.

Skates need to be tight to support your ankles. Extra wool socks will help.
When you feet soles start to hurt, quit. That is a sign of fatigue and you can then easily hurt yourself. Figure no more than 30 minutes max.

 

[Nebor]

Hang onto your girlfriend. When you fall, bring her down with you, and remind her that she dragged you to that place.

Best advice in this thread so far.

 

[EagleKeeper]

Hang onto your girlfriend. When you fall, bring her down with you, and remind her that she dragged you to that place.

Only when you are actually falling. Hanging on while try to skate is bad form

 

[Whisper]

As others have said, wear two pairs of socks and be sure that regardless of the type of skates you get, you lace them up VERY tightly. Especially if you get hockey skates, the material is very tough, and thus it can take a fairly significant effort (much more than you might be used to with regular shoes) to tighten them.

Also as others have said, lean forward; it'll help you keep your balance, and when you fall, it'll work toward preventing you from smacking the back of your head on the ice.

Your ankles are going to be sore afterward, but do your best to keep them straight the entire time.

Figure skates can seem easier for newer skaters because the toe pick allows you to use that to move forward rather than the actual sideways-and-backward skating motion you should be using. Problem is you'll then get used to the toe pick, and will have trouble skating without it.

 

[ThatsABigOne]

Ok, no more advice needed because he already went skating. Waiting on a report back.

 

[uclaLabrat]

It does not really matter between hockey or figure skates for plain standard skating. What matters is how recently the blades have been sharpened. Ask for the pair with the sharpest blades for your size.

Unsharpened blades that slide sideways are a pet peeve of mine.

Figure skates have a double edged blade with a concave groove (inward). This double edge does tend to make it a little easier to skate with figure skates.

Hockey skates have a single edge with a convex curve (outward).

Also, it helps to wear two pair of socks to help prevent blisters. Make the inner pair a thin nylon fabric, the outer pair a thicker cotton fabric and you will be good. Or you can prepare by pre-installing bandaids on the ball (under your big toe) and the heel of your foot. Or just bring several bandaids with you in your pocket.

Make sure to keep your ankles strong and straight to keep the blades of the skate straight up and down (perpendicular) to the ice.



EDIT: hockey skates are easier to skate in when the blade is dull than figure skates. The double edge of figure skates will dull down to a flat edge. The single convex edge of hockey skates are more durable and will still have a bit of an edge when dull.

Choose the hockey skates.

Yeah, but no. Both skates are are concave, and they both have a double edge. http://www.skateny.com/sharpening/

That place explains how skates are sharpened. At any rate, hockey skates are easiest to skate in, they have the best support, and the toe pick can get you into trouble real quick.

To not fall over, bend your knees, and lean forward so your weight is directly over your knees. Your weight should be balanced squarely over the balls of your feet, not your toes, not your heels. Relax, and have fun.

 

[dennilfloss]

Make sure to wear a helmet. One of my cousins got partially paralyzed in her teens when she fell and hit her head on the ice. She still cannot move one arm AFAIK.

 

[ProfJohn]

I know I am late but I would vote figure skates because they are much much easier to stop with.

Plus you can basically walk with them on and slide just a little bit. Much harder to stop on hockey skates.

 

[Jeff7]

It does not really matter between hockey or figure skates for plain standard skating. What matters is how recently the blades have been sharpened. Ask for the pair with the sharpest blades for your size.

Unsharpened blades that slide sideways are a pet peeve of mine.
...

Dear god, this.

I was required to take two phys-ed courses at college. One of them was ice skating. The skates available in my size at the place the college rented were evidently dull as hell, which helped explain my difficulties during the first few weeks of the class. Once that came to light, it also came to light that the sharpening machine had been broken for quite some time, and no one knew how to fix it, so they pretty much just ignored the problem in the hopes that unicorns would show up and make it all better.
The instructor brought in some of her own sharpening stones from home and had a go at it, but it was basically trying to put a good edge onto a butter knife using a small emery board.
Finally, with about 3 weeks left in the course, the machine was fixed and I got some sharp skates. I damn near fell flat the first time out, it was so different. Turning and stopping on queue were suddenly possible feats to perform.

Yes, sharp blades are good.


(Oddly enough, I never fell once while on the ice. If anything started to go awry, I'd pretty well lock my feet in position so I'd at least continue moving in a consistent direction. In this case, it probably helped that the rink was mostly empty at the time, with only about 10 people in the class. Otherwise, I'm sure I'd have either fallen numerous during attempts to avoid crashing into other people, due in part to my lack of ability to consistently alter my direction of travel, as mentioned previously. )

 

[chusteczka]

Yeah, but no. Both skates are are concave, and they both have a double edge. http://www.skateny.com/sharpening/

That place explains how skates are sharpened. At any rate, hockey skates are easiest to skate in, they have the best support, and the toe pick can get you into trouble real quick.

To not fall over, bend your knees, and lean forward so your weight is directly over your knees. Your weight should be balanced squarely over the balls of your feet, not your toes, not your heels. Relax, and have fun.

It seems that I am wrong. Thank you for correcting me.
I was always told to bend my knees and lean backwards, putting my weight into the heel of my foot so as not to dig the toepick into the ice.

Make sure to wear a helmet. One of my cousins got partially paralyzed in her teens when she fell and hit her head on the ice. She still cannot move one arm AFAIK.

This is sad news, Dennil, and I am sorry to hear of this.

 

[uclaLabrat]

It seems that I am wrong. Thank you for correcting me.
I was always told to bend my knees and lean backwards, putting my weight into the heel of my foot so as not to dig the toepick into the ice.





This is sad news, Dennil, and I am sorry to hear of this.

Hey! This is anandtech, we don't take kindly to you graciously admitting when you're wrong! You best take that attitude somewhere else! :biggrin:

Yeah, having a more weight-neutral stance is probably best when a toe pick is involved, but if you jsut have a regular hockey skate, it's easiest to err on having balance forward, because you can usually correct it with another step if you over compensate. If you go too far back, you're going straight onto your ass, dick van dycke style.

 

[GoodRevrnd]

Ya so that went pretty so-so. I only fell once but I wasn't really tempting fate. I could get going a few sissy strides before losing my balance and having to get back to the wall. It seemed like the ice was poorly groomed. The edges of the rink in many parts were very bumpy and uneven with large dips and slopes but I was too big a wuss to go further from the wall to skate in cleaner ice.

 

[EagleKeeper]

Ya so that went pretty so-so. I only fell once but I wasn't really tempting fate. I could get going a few sissy strides before losing my balance and having to get back to the wall. It seemed like the ice was poorly groomed. The edges of the rink in many parts were very bumpy and uneven with large dips and slopes but I was too big a wuss to go further from the wall to skate in cleaner ice.

Was she impressed by you trying?

And will you do it again?

 

[Slew Foot]

Nexxt time wear an Alex Ovechkin jersey so when you fall down you can just you're practicing your diving.

 

[GoodRevrnd]

Was she impressed by you trying?

And will you do it again?

HA! I've been with her so long I don't need to worry about doing the impressing thing. As for again, we'll see.